Total spending by visitors to Salalah last year exceeded OMR 65.66 million, a rise of 30% over OMR 50.42 million spent in 2015, says the latest statistical bulletin issued by the (NCSI).
Spending on recreational tourism accounted for approximately 91.3% of the total expenditure, translating into nearly OMR 60 million, while business tourism had a share of 4.9% of the total expenditure. Housing received as much as 35.8% of the total spending while spending on food and drink stood at 22.9%. Travel, entertainment and shopping made up 21.8% of the total spending. In terms of per capita spending, Kuwaitis emerged as the top spenders at OMR 285 per person, followed by Qataris at OMR 279, while average spending by Asians stood at OMR 62.8 per person. According to Central Bank statistics, ATM withdrawals in Dhofar July rose 7% to 70.9 million rials compared with 66.2 million rials during the month of June, while withdrawals in August went up by 13.9% to reach 80.8 million rials compared with July. The number of withdrawals through ATMs in July, August and September stood at 687 thousand, 752 thousand and 612 thousand respectively. On the other hand, the number of visitors during the period increased by 26.8% to reach 652,986 visitors compared with 514,777 visitors during the 2015 season.
Omanis formed 70.5% of the total visitors at 460,345 visitors, followed by visitors form the Gulf at 17.5% numbering 114,107 visitors, and Asians, who numbered 55,904. Arab visitors numbered 17,333 while the number of European visitors stood at 3,499. There were 798 visitors from other countries as well. Entertainment and recreation ranked first in terms of the purpose of visit to Salalah, at approximately 93.9% of the total visitors. 2.8% visitors came for work, while 2.7% came to visit friends and families. Also, 78.7% of visitors reached Salalah by land, compared with 83.9% during the 2015 season. Visitors from the Gulf including Omanis formed the majority of this category of visitors forming 89.8% of total visitors followed Asians at 8.5%. The number of visitors via domestic flights (Oman Air) stood at nearly 88 thousand while 51 thousand came via international flights.
Sales at fuel stations during the season rose significantly to 203 million liters, while hotel revenues, which peaked in September, touched OMR 1.80 million. Inflation for restaurants and hotels during the month of July was pegged at 12.8%. Statistics indicate the existence of preferential differences in the types of accommodation among the visitors, with over 70% of the visitors preferring furnished apartments and houses as most of them came as families with an average size of 5 members. Total spending on this type of accommodation stood at OMR 43 million making up 67% of the total spending on accommodation.
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